February 11, 2009

Look at our cute new little lamb, Heisman. Chelsea will definitely be spinning his wool next year. He is a bummer lamb from a farmer who didn't have time to raise him. Seeing how our flock of ewes will be lambing soon, we jumped at the opportunity to gain some experience before we have 30+ lambs in our barn.

Right now he's living in our kitchen and Chelsea is the new mama. Heisman has been a good little lamb and Chelsea hasn't lost any sleep due to feedings. He goes 7 - 8 hours between his night time feedings and usually wants to eat every 4 - 5 hours during the day. By next week he'll be

down to 4 feedings/day and will graduate to living in the barn.

Any guesses as to what breed he is?

hint: this breed is small/medium and quite often raised for meat although they have soft short staple wool.

February 07, 2009

This is the lovely Marianne modeling the striking "Dahlia" Top I found at St. Vinnies on Thursday. It's beautiful, and it still has the original tags on it! I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this top in the "retro" section, it's ALL crocheted (can you believe that?! Someone crocheted it, since crocheting cannot be reproduced by machine). The little lines that you see running verticly down the top are little shell stitches, and the horizontal lines are all chains, each boasting a very small, but extremely sparkly, bead.

Dahlia was made out of a fine weight, linen yarn, and is two toned, which reminds me of a corset!

I hope you enjoy looking at this absolutely stunning creation! I'm so thankful that she came into my hands to be highly appreciated and only worn on special occasions, rather than someone who was just looking for something cool.

February 05, 2009

When we left home this morning we had no idea we would return with a new member of the family but that is what happened. We would like to introduce the newest member of our family......

Marianne

I needed to run to the Willy Street Co-op (one of the natural food co-ops our family belongs to) so I suggested we make the morning of it and also run to the St. Vinny's Store one block away. St. Vinny's is a charitable thrift store, and this particular store specializes in retro clothing, so Chelsea is always thrilled to take a peak at what is in the store. I walked into the area where the home furnishing stuff was and standing right before me was Marianne. It was like God placed her there right for our family. Let me tell you why.

Chelsea has been begging for an adjustable dress form for years. Our first dress form was a homemade creation made with duct tape. We duct taped Chelsea in a turtle neck. Chelsea looked like an astronaut by the time we were ready to cut off all the duct tape. That first dress form was a pretty sorry substitution for the real thing.

Then Chelsea found a great deal through Jo Ann Fabrics, but all the reviews of the product were so disappointing that we decided a good deal would be wasted money if the reviews were any indication on the quality of the product.

Chelsea has been scouting eBay for a long time, but the cost of shipping really made the purchase prices on the forms she found prohibitive. How incredible is it that an adjustable dress form would be waiting for us this morning! And the price was right! Thank you Jesus!

Marianne is modeling a vintage satin wedding dress that Chelsea gleaned at a garage sale for about a quarter (could be a dime....it was put as much into a bag as you could squeeze in for a dollar). The 100% natural felted wool wrap was hand made by a close family friend from Finland. The pin was a vintage looking Walmart find and the pearls are old costume jewelry from my box.

February 03, 2009

Today, I'm bringing you Beginners Crochet Projects! I did some research looking for attractive, yet easy projects that beginners could easily handle. There are many, many projects out there, but many can be so boring. I'm sharing some of my very favorites with you!

February 01, 2009

Chelsea made her magazine deadline. This is very big news. If you have followed Chelsea long enough you can see that this busy young woman has a lot of irons in the fire. It guess it is in her genes because her wonderful mother is exactly the same! However, teenagers do not always have the most developed sense of exactly how long projects will take to be completed. Thus there are times that making a deadline is veeerrryy stressful!

As a homeschooler, Chelsea has a lot of flexibility in her schedule. But as a teenager, knowing how to prioritize to get the job done doesn't always come naturally. Heck....this can be difficult for adults! So we utilized this opportunity to learn how to take a deadline and work backwards -- making sure there was sufficient time to complete each part of the project. I have to say she was pretty successful with this. I had imagined an entire week of all-nighters working on finishing and she really only had a couple of late nights at the very end.

She had to have her hat crocheted in her own sheep's wool that she carded, dyed and handspun herself to England by Friday, January 30th. That meant it had to be finished the week ahead to get mailed soon enough....it still had to go Global Express but it arrived on time. She also had to have her pattern completed before the 30th so she could have testers make the pattern to make sure the instructions were clear. The article that was written had to be sent on the 30th and it was! The first revision is already completed and it looks as though the project is about finished.

Whew! This was a pretty big deal for a 16 year old. I think it is a pretty big deal for an adult. But for a teen with high aspirations when it comes to wool, yarn, and crochet.......it's a dream come true.

So I couldn't be prouder of you Chelsea....you did a great job! I know you have more publishing goals for the year and I'm sure you will meet every one successfully. I just hope I don't get more gray hairs over worrying about your deadlines. But I guess you've proven that I don't need to worry. You are learning to prioritize and manage your time without the "micro-manager" (yes....I did get accused of micro-managing her time....ouch!)